On March 14, 1975, 22-year-old Californian woman Donna Tobias graduated from the US Navy Second Class Dive School to become the first woman deepsea diver in the Navy. Marking the 50th anniversary of ...

To survive on this wild planet we call home, humans need to adapt. That's not just a feat of strength of will, but of the body. To deal with different environmental pressures, our bodies change over ...

The Haenyeo women who dive deep into the East China Sea to harvest sea urchins and shellfish spend the most time underwater of any humans ever studied — one to five hours a day, researchers report ...

An island 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula is home to a unique and celebrated community of women: the Haenyeo. These women dive year-round off Jeju Island, ...

A couple of years ago, Melissa Ilardo found herself aboard a motorboat traversing the ocean around Jeju Island, which sits some 50 or 60 miles off the coast of South Korea. Before the vessel had even ...

The Haenyeo, a group of all-female divers from the Korean island of Jeju, are renowned for their ability to dive in frigid waters without the aid of breathing equipment -- even while pregnant. A study ...

Female divers from Jeju and Ulleung islands unfurl a Taegeukki (Korean flag) after performing a diving demonstration in front of Mongdol Beach on the nation's easternmost islets of Dokdo on Aug. 8, ...

A group of "haenyeo" female divers collects shellfish and marine life in waters off Wa Island in the city of Jeju on South Korea's largest island of the same name on July 8, 2025. The word haenyeo ...

The Haenyeo, or "women of the sea," are a group of all-women extreme divers who work off the coast of Korea. They have spent their entire lives free-diving as much as 60 feet under the surface in the ...